


A Simple Snowball Fight

by roxaeri



Series: Modern Mythos AU [2]
Category: God of War
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 04:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15017036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxaeri/pseuds/roxaeri
Summary: Atreus is thirteen years old and trying to clear their driveway of snow with his dad. So of course he wants to find a way to finish the job faster. A good thing he recently discovered that he has more powers than any of them believed.





	A Simple Snowball Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous Prompt: Okay, hear me out on this one. What if Atreus tricks Kratos into a snowball fight by saying it's really training. (He won't be wrong in that sense either if you think about it). But, since this IS Kratos I have a sneaky feeling he'd take it too far to the point it stops be fun.

“Dad?”  


“Atreus.”  


“Why are we shoveling?” He stopped to watch his dad for a moment, looking back up to the house and feeling an phantom ache in his bones as he realizes how much they've done since coming outside this morning.  


“Because there is snow covering the driveway.” Dad jokes and a long-ass driveway he normally appreciated—if it weren't for the fact that he has the stamina of a human adult. A sore point for any god, even if he is only thirteen.  


“I mean, I see that. But we've been out here for hours. Why can't you just—melt the snow?”  


“Because we live in a forest, Atreus.”  


“That's not—Dad.”  


“Atreus.” Kratos paused to look at him, face unchanging. “Have you not heard the myth where a red fox had their mouth and paws burnt by the sun? Or notice how the fox targets campers and hikers who use fire? Do not think I haven't noticed how they avoid me.”  


“Alright, I get it. No fire. No melting the snow.” He looks away and starts shoveling again before his dad can realize with his dad senses that— _just maybe_ —Atreus helps mess with those campers and hikers. Or how much it bugs him that his longtime friend can't stand his dad. And vice versa.  


Atreus understands not wanting to upset the ruling spirit of the current territory they were settled in, especially since they've been friends practically since his birth. Even more so since the fox was a trickster, and his family couldn't see through their illusions like he could. He would help them more if he were able, but he was raised a god in plain-sight; he didn't have the instinct that came with weaving his own illusions for his own survival. Atreus couldn't create anything close to the visions that draped the entire forest.  


With another huff, he leaned against his shovel. He also suspected that none of their snow blowers worked because of the creator of those illusions. But to this day, he has never found out why the trickster has issues with modern technology.  


“We are halfway done, Atreus.”  


“I know. I'm just,” _Getting an idea_ , “Having a moment.”  


Said idea probably isn't smart, considering that his dad doesn't seem to approve of him using any of his powers ever—but he's bored and suddenly feeling tired. Tricksters are lead by their desires, and he just wants the snow off the driveway. So he wiggles his fingers as he feels the intent bleed out of him.  


At first, he doesn't see anything happen, but he's been outside all morning with the sun reflecting off the snowy landscape. So it takes him a moment to realize that the snow disturbed around his shovel is actually rolling away into snow pebbles.  


His excitement allows him to feel the energy vibrating out from his core that he was too tired to feel before. Somehow, it helped to build his energy rather than exhaust him as it did with the rest of his family and their powers. Gathering it to himself, he held his hand out towards the pile of snow he should have been working on. There was resistance against his hand, as if he were actually touching the snow. Giving it a hard shove sent the snow, and himself, flying.  


“Whoa!”  


“Atreus?”  


“I, uh,” He brushed the snow out of his face, “Tripped myself.”  


“Hm.” Kratos' almost immediate acceptance of his answer makes Atreus wonder if he's getting better at lying to his dad, or if it tells him what his dad really thinks on his balance. Atreus knows he isn't the most graceful god out there—and he's seen tricksters both full of grace and ones unable to sit still without tripping themselves—but still.  


Getting back up onto the pavement is a struggle, but once he's there, Atreus takes care not to forget that there's nothing actually holding him back. A couple of empty palm strikes against the air reminded him to stay focused. With his powers free, there's no telling what they might do if he let it get away from him. That thought makes him wonder how proud his dad would be of that if it weren't for his clashing genetics creating the space for weird powers.  


As he's taking another break, after waving off his father, the sudden urge for mischief befalls him. And maybe it has to do with the fact that his dad's totally focused and his recent shenanigans with the other trickster kids at school that has him wanting to throw a snowball at the man to disturb the steady peace.  


Shaking off the urge, he goes back to shoving the snow away. Atreus should probably ask to hang out with the other kids again before the urge to mess with his family grows to disastrous proportions. Calliope and his dad were still unable to tell what he might have shifted into to hide himself, but his mom had the unnatural sense of where and what he was exactly when she got too close.  


At least, he intends to go back to finishing the job, but he comes out of his thoughts to see the arctic fox too late. A red eye winks at him before zipping over the snow towards his dad. Panicking and not thinking, his hand shoots out.  


The snow around the fox bursts through the air, covering their escape but also blanketing his father.  


“. . . Atreus.” Golden eyes land on him, narrowed and suspicious. Atreus can only wave, eyes catching the dizzying shift of his friend from arctic fox to red fox before disappearing. “What were you doing?”  


“Uh, practicing?” Which isn't a lie.  


“Doing what, exactly?”  


“I'm tired, dad. My arms and my back are starting to hurt—and I've been doing proper posture or whatever it's called.” So maybe he has to compel himself to lie, the words falling off his tongue quite easily. Normally he would be scared of disappointment, but Atreus thinks he's made the shift into mischief mode thanks to the fox.  


“And you're using your powers.”  


“It's not—I don't know what it is,” Atreus used a finger to flick some snow away, in which case it rolled away in a ball, “But it doesn't make me tired like it does you or mom or Calliope.” Because their rules don't apply to him. That goes unspoken, but it's palpable. It always is.  


“It's a bit of practice. Sungilah said it helps—with the power build and, you know . . . wanting to switch all the shaving cream in the store with whipped cream.” It's bullshit he's laying down for his dad. True and honest, because he really does want to switch the products and it was the advice his friend gave him the last time they met up. But it's still bullshit to hide the fact that the fox was messing with both him and his dad. Atreus doesn't want to add to their thirteen year long power struggle.  


“And this advice came from Sungilah, and not Tokala, correct?”  


That had him shivering. He's never really sure which one he's talking to at times—no one ever is except for Seung's dad—but he understands the concern.  


“It was Sungilah. I'm positive.” As positive as he can get when it comes to tricksters who constantly shapeshift.  


“Then you may practice your control if it helps.” Those words from his dad nearly sends him stumbling back off into the ditch, but he doesn't.  


“Got it! Yeah, sure--” Atreus stops himself and takes a breath like Mimir told him should before continuing, “I can do it. And the driveway will be clean in no time!”  


“You will take your time.” His dad emphasizes, waiting until Atreus agrees before going back to shoveling his half.  


The kid almost launches himself into a tree at how excited he is to have his dad's permission to use his powers. It's rare and unexpected and he had been braced for a lecture. Atreus can feel the energy bouncing around inside him and vibrating just under his skin. It's ticklish and the only time it stops is when he pushes against the snow.  


He's about as focused as his dad before he spots red fur in the distance before it blinks back into an invisible white against the landscape. The fox came back and that fact shoves his instincts into overdrive.  


At least until he gets a snowball to the face. The sound solid and loud enough to attract his dad's attention again.  


“Just a bit,” He stumbles trying to get wet snow out of his face, “I slipped. I’m good.” They must have brought up some snow from by the water. It was more slush than the ice flakes they were shoveling and he's sure his dad can tell the difference.  


With a huff, he looks for the fox before a snowball goes flying in front of his face, scraping his nose. Atreus doesn’t even glance at his dad before whisking up something to launch back. It was messy and small before Sungilah whipped it back around to roll and explode in a silent poof of snow at his feet.  


By then, he could see the strange shine of their fur against the glittering snow, which helped even out their quiet battle. Sungilah was the oldest of his generation of tricksters according to Mimir, one who was already recognized, and it showed. Especially when they grinned back at him after missing, only for Atreus to hear the hard smack of soaked snow against skin.  


He doesn’t get the chance to look at his dad before he gets an icy wet smack in the face again.  


“What are you--?” His dad doesn’t even get to finish his thought before a barrage of snowballs falls on them. With enough presence of mind, Atreus steals one or two to sling back at the fox.  


He knows he shouldn’t find this situation fun, because his friend and his dad dislike each other, but he does. It's Chaos meeting the Void. A clash between a trickster born from Darkness and one of the most lethal War Gods to ever have lived.  


It's a fucking snowball fight, and Atreus is _living_ for it.  


And maybe he's letting himself go more than he should. Atreus knows his dad won’t be happy about anything going down right now. Sungilah never restrained themselves to the extent he did. A good example being the fact that they used their powers with wild abandon and taunted said war god. Atreus would have included himself, but he only saw himself as a kid enjoying a high powered snowball war where he wasn’t the focus.  


“Okay, _how_ are you doing that?” Atreus asked once he hopped his way through the snow to hide behind a tree near the shape shifter.  


“Doing what?” Sungilah jumped back, shifting onto two legs as a snowball exploded where their head was.  


“That!” Atreus laughed, taking the time to toss his own. It was a lazy throw, weak and off due to the unfocused energy buzzing through him. “Getting him to play along?”  


“Oh, it's easy. I use the power of annoyance and the fact that you're having fun, too.”  


“That's bullshit.” Atreus didn’t curse out loud very often, but he said it so honestly that it sent the fox into a laughing fit. Enough to the point Atreus felt the need to defend them from his dad.  


“Okay,” Sungilah gasped, flinging a hand out to send another wave at the older god, “So maybe your father's a little compelled. Never let it be said he doesn’t know what fun is—or this wouldn’t have worked. It'll go away when I go away. But for now—”  


“We have fun!”  


And it was. The more it went on, the easier it was for Atreus to focus and control how he crafted the snow. He suspected the exact moment his dad was no longer compelled by the trickster. Most likely happened when he realized Sungilah was actually teaching him during their snow-filled battle. It wasn’t to the point Atreus could create anything like his friend, but enough that he could form a large snowball about the size of a basketball and it would hold together. Several of those were launched right back at them, with his dad calling out instructions to dodge. It was stimulating training, and he wondered if the trickster planned for this or if it was his luck acting against theirs.  


Atreus felt something barrel into him from the side, pushing over both him and Sungilah. Popping up from his imprint in the snow he saw a snow boulder hit a tree and fall apart.  


“What--?” He saw a flicker by his dad that told him what was happening before a volley of snowballs came flying at the pair.  


“Até!” Sungilah called out. A hearty laugh echoed around them.  


“Don’t think I can’t find you, kit.” Sungilah's father said, perched in a tree. Atreus was reminded that a lot of their habits came from the elder trickster. “Oh, no you don't!” He dived for the fox, already transformed and attempting to dash away. Where Atreus knew neither he nor his dad could keep up, the trickster god was faster than his friend. Iktomi made the rules, even in a domain that didn’t belong to him.  


Atreus was out of breath and freezing as he trampled through the snow to his dad. The other father and child pair were having a heated discussion in a language Atreus had no hope of learning.  


“How are you feeling?” His dad asked when he was near. Gold eyes were sharp as they peered down at him, reflecting the glow of his own eyes.  


“Better. Less . . . anxious, I guess.” Atreus wouldn’t say calm, but the energy inside him had evened out to the point where it no longer felt as if he would fall apart. He took a moment to turn away from the nearby family talk to see the driveway, covered in snow again due to Sungilah's burst attacks.  


“You will now focus what energy you have left on clearing the rest of it, Atreus.”  


Okay, that he understood. Atreus wanted to make up for joining in on the fun his dad was compelled to have. Being this far into his mom's wards should have kept his dad safe from something like this.  


“Keep pelting him with snowballs until it's done!”  


Atreus whirled around to look at the elder trickster in shock. His friend was pouting, tucked under his arm like an American football.  


“A good idea, spider.”  


“My thanks for making my child predictable, warboy!”  


Again, Atreus knew he hadn't blinked at all, but the sudden disappearance of the pair made him feel as if he had.  


He would have continued to think on that if not for the snowball that hit the side of his head.  


“Hey—”  


“The driveway, Atreus.”  


Later, he walked into his mother's office, flinging himself on the carpet. Atreus was soaked head to toe and couldn’t find it in him to care about the hardwood.  


“It's not fair dad has perfect aim with his bare hands.” He felt the heat of the fire on his hand, reaching out with his magic to pull the air towards himself.  


“Honey, he's the Greek god of war who replaced Ares fair and square. He was a Spartan General. And he has ages of experience.” She had a placating smile on her face as she leaned forward on her desk to better see him on the floor. “You’re a thirteen year-old who just recently discovered he's a trickster.”  


“I’m supposed to be Loki. A major trickster god.”  


“Your father was once a mortal boy. You’re already far beyond what he was at your age.” His mom took in his appearance with a frown. “You will become what you wish to be given time and experience; But before that, you will go shower and change before even you catch a cold.”  


“Okay.” He struggled to get up in his wet clothes, even with his mother's help. She didn’t mind it as she hugged him and kissed his head.  


“And don’t be upset. Your father still has to clear the roads to city, and no doubt Sungilah will be lurking about. That experience should humble him and avenge your honor.” Those words and that grin on his mother's face had him laughing.  


“Right.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I'm using this as a warm up to get away from the constant mindset of MDD. Sneak peek into Modern Mythos I guess?? I was going to write just a regular one shot but then this turned into War God Kratos and Trickster Atreus, so we all just have to live with it.


End file.
